A man charged with stealing computer secrets from Intel Corp. and passing them on to a rival told a convoluted tale of international espionage during his life as a free-lance spy.
William Gaede held a jailhouse news conference Monday, two days after his arrest for allegedly sending a videotape to Advanced Micro Devices Inc. on how to make the Pentium chip that runs state-of-the-art personal computers.Prosecutors allege he stole information from both Intel and AMD worth tens of millions of dollars, the San Jose Mercury-News reported.
Gaede, a 42-year-old native of Argentina, offered few details about the Pentium accusation when he spoke to reporters Monday with permission from the FBI. Instead, he sketched a scenario involving Cuban and U.S. intelligence agencies and an alleged double-cross by the FBI.
Federal authorities, according to Gaede, wanted Cuban military secrets in exchange for information on U.S. technology. He wouldn't comment on whether any exchange was actually made, answering that and many other questions by saying the information would come out at his trial.
"I was the go-between between the people in Cuba and the U.S. government," he said.
Gaede was charged with mail fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property. The indictment against him, issued in San Jose, Calif., was under seal. He was arrested at his home in suburban Phoenix and scheduled for a court appearance here Wednesday before his return to California.
"What they did was frame me," said Gaede, who had said in interviews earlier this year he stole secrets and had dealings with communist and former communist governments.
The Pentium video was sent to AMD from Argentina, where Gaede spent some time before returning to the Phoenix area four months ago.
Gaede said he worked for AMD from 1979 to 1992. In 1993, he went to work for Intel as a computer programmer and later as a systems engineer. He said he was fired in May the next year for "not cooperating in a security investigation."